Posts Tagged ‘Danziger Gallery’

For many, what we once set forth to do in life eventually wears thin or simply no longer holds the same sheen it once did. Sometimes what we still want to do is no longer an option. This leads us towards new passions, such as photography. For Ed Templeton, once a figure within the skateboarding world, this is exactly the case. And now Danziger Gallery is providing his very first exhibit in New York.

A California native, Templeton grew up and still lives in the suburbs of Orange County. His photographs tell the story of the worlds he knows – the pangs and passion of youth, the beauty and tackiness of Southern California, and the exhilaration and exhaustion of the skateboard world he starred in.

While Templeton originally gained fame as a skateboarder, turning professional in 1990 and founding his own skateboard company, he always felt a need for creative expression both athletically and artistically. Influenced by professional skateboarders who did their own graphics and art, Templeton began to create works in multiple mediums – painting, photography, and sculpture. He continued to tour the world as a skateboarder, but over time (and injury), his art became his primary focus.

Around 1994 Templeton had become associated with a group of west coast artists whose styles and distribution channels originated largely outside of the art world, and included an interest in pop culture iconography, a commitment to be true and unpretentious, and a strong do-it-yourself attitude.

Collectively titled “Beautiful Losers” the group included Shepard Fairey, Mark Gonzales, Margaret Kilgallen, Barry McGee, and Ryan McGinley among others and was documented in an influential film, book, and touring exhibition.

While Templeton’s photography is entirely self-taught, it would be a mistake to label him an outsider artist. He is well aware of what he is doing, the intricacies of his craft, and the moment to press the shutter. Think of a young Lartigue growing up in a working class family in SoCal as opposed to a rich cosmopolitan milieu.

Templeton documents the people and places he encounters in a rich stream of images – of himself and his wife Deanna, of the everyday people who hang out at Huntington Beach, and the places he passes in his car. He collects images of themes that he feels drawn to – teen smokers and kissers; surfers and skaters; public displays of religion, politics and self-expression.

Templeton likes to present his photographs in a non-hierarchical manner, large quantities mixed up together in irregular clusters. He hangs works in the shape of what he calls “image clouds.” In Templeton’s way of seeing we recognize the fascination of the passer-by gripped at some unexpected moment by the “extraordinary of the ordinary”, the exceptional and existential moments of daily life. It’s the best and truest tradition of photography – always ready to surprise when a new voice or vision looks at the world afresh with the same old Leica.

Now open, Danziger Gallery will be exhibiting Amalgamated Fragments until July 27th.

As life moves forward, the beauty that evolves with one more day must unfortunately come to an end. Such is the case of artist Hans Breder, who recently passed away at the age of 81. New York’s James Danziger – of Danziger Gallery – was privileged to work with Breder, and consequently wrote a lovely memoriam in remembrance.

Born in Germany, Breder moved to the United States in 1964 and settled in Iowa where he founded the University of Iowa’s pioneering Intermedia department blending performance and media art. A photographer, painter, sculptor, and conceptual artist, Breder influenced countless artists and exhibited in three Whitney Biennials.

We were privileged to get to know Hans and the gallery was proud to exhibit his work – first as a solo show at Paris Photo in 2015 and then with a show to open our Rivington Street gallery in 2016. From these shows work was acquired by the Getty Museum, the Whitney, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and The Milwaukeee Art Museum, as well as numerous important private collections.

Breder was indeed a force of nature. I saw him a month ago in Iowa City and although he had been ill earlier in the year, he was full of vigor as we planned future shows, went our for an Italian dinner, and a shared love of Lambrusco. This past weekend I received the news from Hans’ associate Candida Pagan notifying me that Hans had gone to the hospital and was in hospice care. She wrote: “For someone who has considered thresholds and liminal spaces throughout his life, this is an important moment.” I am sure this is how Hans considered it.

Deborah Bell Photographs is presenting a unique and beautiful exhibit celebrating one of photography’s most celebrated subjects – women.

Deborah Bell Photographs is pleased to present a group exhibition of
photographs based on a theme long favored in art: woman in the landscape.
Inspired by the progressive photographs made by James Moore, Gösta Peterson,
William Silano, and Deborah Turbeville for the editorial pages of leading fashion
magazines in the 1960s and 1970s, this exhibition features prints by those
photographers, and by Susan Paulsen and Marcia Resnick, and incorporates
selected photographs by Robert Adams, Diane Arbus, Harry Callahan, Louis
Faurer, and Lee Friedlander. We are also delighted to include 19th century
prints by Roger Fenton, Charles Nègre, Sydney Richard Percy, and Nevil Story Maskelyne, antecedents whose photographs, made more than a century earlier,
convey early explorations of this traditional genre.

To celebrate the exhibit, a reception will be held this Wednesday, on June 21st from 6 to 8 pm.

It was 1976 in Bloomingdales when we “bumped” into Patti Smith cruising through the aisle in her monochromatic outfit with a shy demeanor. No one knew the legend she and her roommate would inspire many years out.

For years his pictures lay dormant. Mapplethorpe had lost interest, though he did incorporate them in later works. And even after Mapplethorpe’s death in 1989 from complications of AIDS, LLoyd Ziff was ambivalent about showing them. As for Ms. Smith, he said: “I never considered publishing a naked picture of Patti. It just wasn’t something you do to a friend.”

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